Happy to be in motion doing something productive, Annaliese hummed to herself as she dragged a piece of a bed frame towards her guard post. It was a little unwieldy but not unmanageable. The scavenged piece should make a great first piece of her window blockade. Slightly winded, she stopped for a second to catch her breath.

“This shouldn’t be this hard,” she reminded herself. “I’ve hauled way heavier stuff way farther.” Exhaling heavily, Annaliese looked to her right and spotted the large glass sliding door that lead to the house’s backyard. “Oh, damnit to Hell. That’s not gonna stop any zombie.”

Sighing, she moved closer to inspect the door’s track, trying to see if it could at least be jammed closed. A flutter of movement outside caught her attention. She took a step to the left to get a better view. What she saw made her heart skip a beat.

There was someone outside. There was a raggedy someone outside. There was a raggedy someone stumbling around outside. The information quickly clicked together to form the only rational conclusion. THERE WAS A ZOMBIE OUTSIDE!

“Uh, Ray? Ray?” She was surprised at how calm she sounded as she called for her partner.

It was only a momentary calm which dissipated like fog as the sun rose. Her heart began to race and she broke out into a cold sweat. “Ray, I know it can’t possibly be true and I’m gonna sound like a total crackhead but…” Annaliese watched as the zombie in the yard sat down and eventually fell over.

“Ray,” she called out, her voice high and thready. “Ray, there’s a zombie in our yard.”